From heavy metal to hip hop and traditional rock, the night was a snapshot of music coming out of remote Aboriginal communities.

MC for the night, Don Mellard, said the Bush Bands bash gives local musicians a chance to step away from the communities and play in front of a large town audience.

"Basically these bands are made up of Indigenous youth who often perform on their communities at sports carnivals and basically the Bush Bands Bash is an opportunity for them to get out and showcase their talent to the wider community."

However, resourcing the bands can be a problem, as Mellard explains.

"Most communities, they'll have one set of drums, one guitar, and they basically will rotate that around because there's only one set of equipment. Over the years it starts to get a bit wrecked. They have to share this equipment it makes, it really hard for them," says Mellard.

The Ltira Band, named after the outstation ten kilometres out of Hermannsburg where the band members live, is one example of a community band that have practised hard to learn their craft and the Bush Band Bash is their first big performance away from the community.

Self taught lead guitarist, Eric Fly says playing music gave him something to focus on after finishing school in the community.

"When I finished school I was thinking I got to do something instead of sitting around and doing nothing. I gotta get up and do something like play music and make my family happy. I used to listen to a cassette, and every day I'd play after breakfast after lunch, right up to late at night. Just teach myself to play guitar."

After teaching himself to play guitar, Eric went on to teach his friends music and from there, the Ltira band formed.

"I got a guitar and I started to listen to songs and copied the songs from the olden days and from there I taught my groups, my friends. I was teaching them how to play bass and guitar and how to go with the beat," says Eric.

Much of the music to come out of the remote communities has the story telling qualities often heard in country music, with the added influence of gospel. Many of the songs are about everyday community life from family interaction to drinking. Some of the songs even deal with heavier issues, as with the Sandridge Band's (Borroloola) song titled 'Domestic Violence.'

"Songs about our home and our people and what they do and about the families and some songs about drinking and that," says Eric from the Ltira band.

While Eric may have inspired the band to pick up their instruments, keeping focused on the music is a team effort. With the many distractions that make up community life such as hunting and family gatherings, sticking to band practice is strictly enforced.

"We practice like twice a week and sometimes we do other things like mustering horses and go shooting and visit with family and every time when we come back we must tell each other to keep on playing music and make a lot of songs," says Eric.